Renewable energy vs. cultural preservation - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 123

To date, policies in the United States aimed at overcoming barriers to
renewable energy on Indian trust lands have largely proven ineffective.
The United States Congress enacted the Indian Tribal Development and
Self-Determination Act (ITEDSA) in 2005, seeking to ease energy devel-
opment on reservation lands. 17 In connection with this legislation, the
federal government formed new agencies specifically designed to assist
tribes with energy development. 18 Unfortunately, ITEDSA's provisions
failed to adequately address several remaining obstacles to renewable energy
projects on tribal lands, including the challenges described above. For
instance, as of late 2013, not a single tribe had taken advantage of certain
ITEDSA provisions allowing tribes to obtain greater autonomy in tribal
energy development through special Tribal Energy Resource Agreements
(TERAs). 19 A primary reason for this lack of tribe participation is that few
tribes have adequate financial resources to fund their involvement in the
TERA application process.
Members of Congress have advocated for new legislation in recent years
that would fill some of the holes left by ITEDSA, but as of late 2013 their
efforts on a new bill had proven unsuccessful. 20 Frustrated by this lack of
progress, scholars and stakeholders in the United States have been increas-
ingly advocating policy changes capable of creating a more level playing
field and greater opportunities for Indian tribes interested in developing
renewable energy projects on reservation lands. 21
Despite all of the aforementioned challenges, a small handful of indig-
enous groups throughout the world have been finding ways to develop
wind and solar energy facilities on tribal lands, and are having some limited
success. For example, the Moapa tribe in southern Nevada in the United
States has received approvals and begun developing a 350 MW solar energy
project on its territory. 22 The project has been touted as the first ever utility-
scale solar energy project on tribal lands in the United States. 23 Developers
in Australia also signed a lease agreement in 2011 for wind energy devel-
opment on Aboriginal lands in the state of Queensland. 24 If built, the
project would be the first wind farm on Aboriginal land in that country. 25
Hopefully, these pioneering projects will prove successful and will open
the door for much more responsible, mutually beneficial renewable energy
development on indigenous lands over the next century.
Tribal opposition to renewable energy projects outside the
reservation
Although many Indian tribes in the United States are interested in the
potential economic rewards of pursuing renewable energy development
within their Indian Trust lands, tribes have increasingly taken an opposite
stance with respect to of -reservation projects. Tribes can be fierce opponents
of wind and solar energy projects from which they stand to gain no financial
benefit, particularly when such projects are on ancestral lands of cultural